When Nathedious “Pee Wee” Mills of Heath Springs got out of bed early one morning in March, he never could have imagined that within the hour he'd be writhing in pain, his life, as he knew it, crushed as violently as his skull.

Now, nearly four months after he was attacked in his home during a robbery, Mills has begun his journey back from the valley of the shadow of death, and his family, friends and community are coming together to help see him through.

In 2014, the national Violence Policy Center cited the FBI ranked South Carolina as leading in the nation in the number of women killed by men, another shameful step up in the state’s top 10 ranking it had held for the past 15 years.